Over the weekend I created a landing page for my Twitter account.
I got the idea off Laura Fitton (@pistachio) when a guest post on TwiTip highlighted what she’d done with her own Who is @pistachio landing page.
What is a Twitter Landing Page?
In short – a twitter landing page is a page on your blog or website that is specifically written for those arriving at your blog having clicked on the link in your twitter profile.
Why Develop a Twitter Landing Page?
I recently wrote a post on ProBlogger suggesting 3 alternatives to promoting your blogs homepage – the reasoning behind this post was that when you promote your blog’s front page you send people to a page that at times can be confusing and is less likely to convert people into regular readers.
The idea behind a landing page is that it can be tailored to suit the audience who arrives on it.
Think about why people click the URL on a Twitter profile?
Most times that I do it – I want to know more about the person behind the Twitter account. I want to know who they are, what they do and how I can connect with them.
Being taken to the front page of their blog doesn’t really answer all of these questions without me having to do some more work (looking for an about page, sifting through their latest posts etc).
A Twitter Landing Page can quickly answer some of these basic questions and at the same time give a strong call to action (what this Call to Action is will depend upon your goals).
My Twitter Landing Page
My Twitter Landing Page is designed simply to give more information and a relatively quick introduction into who I am and where people can find out more about the different aspects of what I do. It includes:
- A prominent personal picture – the the same one as my Twitter avatar which hopefully reinforces the brand. There’s also images of my book and the ProBlogger logo.
- My story – a very brief version of my blogging story – with a link where they can read an extended version
- Introductions to my blogs – links to where people can read more of my content
- A stronger introduction to ProBlogger – as my twitter account is centered around this blog I wanted to highlight what it is about and call people to subscribe to it.
- A call to follow me on Twitter and introduction to what people get if they do
- Introductions to my other projects – b5media, the ProBlogger Book, the Problogger job boards
In addition to that I’ve personalized the page so that people know it is written specifically for Twitter users in the hope that this personalization will make them feel a little more personally welcomed.
Extend this Idea
Of course Twitter Landing Pages are just the tip of the social media iceberg. Extend it further by creating Facebook Landing Pages, LinkedIn Landing Pages, Plurk Landing Pages, Digg Landing Pages and more.
That is a great idea. I am going to start working on my own Twitter landing page. Thank you Darren.
We had read about the landing page creation on DailyBlogTips and used it on our blog, and had a good result so far..In DailyBlogTips, it was about landing page for the 1st time visitors. Its nice idea to create a landing page for even twitter visitors
What an awesome idea! I’m sure more and more people are going to have a Twitter landing page shortly.
And why didn’t I think of that..? :) Great idea, and I will follow the lead. Thank you for sharing this with us!
What a powerful idea!
Just learned something new here. I never knew about a twitter landing page before. Thank you
Great idea! But I think I’ll need some technical help, oh me o little tech knowledge.
Love this! And can I say, I think your twitter background might be the best ever?!
Twitter is spreading like virus. And it’s a good idea to have a landing page.
Good idea. It would be interesting to see how much extra traffic the landing page gets from twitter.
Btw the link to Pistachio is dead.
What a great idea, thanks for sharing it. I’m going to put it on my to do list. I have noticed a few hits a day coming from my Twitter profile.
Thanks for the push, Darren. I always wondered if I should provide a link in the message after auto follow. A landing page sounds perfect. I actually spent reading your landing page and becoming a problogger page every line. Very fascinating.
Shri :)
I’m currently torn about the notion of Twitter landing pages.
I think they’re useful if there’s a significant disconnect between the Twitter profile (and the posting style/habits/content associated with it) and the web site itself. There’s a lot of potential and necessity for some sort of bridging material there.
However, when there’s an obvious symbiosis between the two, I don’t think a Twitter landing page is really necessary. There’s a possibility it could prove detrimental, much like those old-fashioned splash pages that require visitors to click past one or two “welcome” pages to get to the site’s actual content.
For example, my Twitter account was created specifically as an adjunct to my retro gaming blog. Visitors to my Twitter profile will see, very quickly, that there’s a gaming slant to the profile. Likewise, people clicking through to my blog via my Twitter profile will also get the picture pretty quickly. There’s no need for a splash page dividing the two.
If my Twitter profile were more “personal” and off-topic (with respect to my blog’s content), then I’d probably consider a landing page.
Also, if we’re offering landing pages for Twitter visitors, do we start offering landing pages from other locations? What about Facebook visitors? Linked.in visitors? Where do you draw the line with regards to which visitors deserve a landing page and which ones don’t?
Terrific idea ~ I had been considering this as I have multiple online businesses. The hardest part for me is the technical end of uploading a template to my host in order to start the process.
What a great idea! As I always check the links to the pages of my followers, I have experienced the confusion that can occur. I follow all my followers, although I follow other people too. And I interact. If everyone did this (or could) we would find it easier to get to know one another.
FB sort of has a profile.
Many Twitter users, myself included work to make our backgrounds so they contain info about us.
Well, thanks. And so my TODO list continues to grow!
o
Judy Rey Wasserman
On Twitter: judyrey
I’ve intended to create a landing page since I read about the concept for the first time on TwiTip, Darren. This post is just the reminder that I needed. I particularly like the idea of mentioning what types of tweets my followers can expect. Will it be updates like “Going outside to shovel snow” or something more beneficial? (let’s hope for the latter)
Custom landing pages are nothing new in the SEO and other worlds, but nice reminder that it can be used here.
Interesting idea. I’d like to extend this out for you a bit…
Most of the data on the about page would remain the same, no matter where the visitor is coming from.
In PHP (which I know most people use if they’re using WordPress), you could set up a simple switch statement on the http referer.
In pseudocode it would be:
switch on referer:
case: twitter.com
-do some stuff for twitter
case: digg.com
-do some stuff for digg visitors
.
.
.
default
-normal about page with no customization
The “do some stuff” part could be loading specific links, icons, colors, formatting, etc that is specific to the originating service. If someone is coming from twitter, you could have a link back for “follow me,” and if it’s from digg you could have a link for all your stories dugg or submitted on digg, or an “add friend” button.
Just a few suggestions. This would make it much easier to only maintain a single about page, but have some dynamic areas that cater to certain visitors. Low maintenance, high impact ;P
i have seen people do this with youtube and myspace too. i am deffinitely going to try this for twitter.
Awesome article and idea Darren. Your twitter landing page just flows perfectly with great information. I hope to get one up soon.
The simple ideas are always the best. Great stuff.
Darren, this is really great idea. I just wondering where do you link this page to your Home Page.
Wouldn’t it be better just to use your existing “About Me” page?
That way, you aren’t creating several new pages to maintain, you aren’t duplicating content all over the place, etc.
And if your homepage is confusing, isn’t that a usability problem you should address anyway?
I have a twitter landing page and it has been a great addition to my profile. Here is the link to mine: http://www.blogforprofit.com/welcome-from-my-twitter-page/
If your readers don’t have one, they really should. It just adds to the ways we can connect with our community.
This is somewhat what a “homepage” has always meant to be – it’s just that the popular concept of a homepage died sometime around 2002 :) My “homepage” takes a more dynamic approach – I include my del.icio.us bookmarks, Flickr photos, etc.
One widget you might find useful for a home page is the one at http://duckduckgo.com/karma.html – it lets you make a “badge” that features links to and your karma at a fistful of various social media sites – MySpace, Reddit, Digg, Twitter, and so forth.
Extend it further by creating Facebook Landing Pages, LinkedIn Landing Pages, Plurk Landing Pages, Digg Landing Pages and more.
I wonder if it would it make sense to have a single page with something like a WWSGD plug-in function to do minor customization for each referrer.
A similar idea for those real life meetings where you don’t have a hyperlink across your forehead: create an “ImetYourNameHere.com” landing page. All they have to remember is your name and “Imet”
Cheers,
@hpebley3
This is a great concept Darren and something that might be able to applied to not only twitter but many other social profiles. On my blog I write about a potpourri of topics ranging from SEO and SEM to Music and more. Obviously with such a grab bag of topics and interests I belong to a number of niche social sites. Creating niche/social media specific landing pages might be something to consider for more than one social network.
darren:
great idea. i was noticing as twitter gets more automated, people have been using URLS in their auto direct replies for their new follower.
I even saw links to actual free PDF ebooks as an instant value to the new follower.
more to come i assume as twitter begins to become defined in how to be used for marketing purposes.
Nice. Something like ‘Personal About Page’ for Twitter ‘market’. ;)
I used this suggestion – and it was great. Another great suggestion is to customize your twitter profilepage. You can add logo and pics pretty easily.
http://www.justinpopovic.com
Your link to DPS is wrong. The anchor text is correct but the actual html to the site is misspelled and dropping you off somewhere else.
Awesome ideas by Darren and everyone commenting. I like free ebooks for new followers.
Great idea. I will definitely have to desgin a twitter landing page over the weekend. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks Dareen this is very useful post because I love blogging and twitter both.
love this iead…now i just need to find time to do it!
love this idea. now the trick is finding time to do it…
Hi I agree too. A great idea (but I do think the personal greeting with a video is a ‘little’ over the top. I have seen that in the wild!).
I have a ‘vanity’ url. Shared with my family (lucky we have an unusual name)
So I get [email protected] as my email address and
http://dave.spathaky.name as my own internet ‘profile’ home page.
It is getting to look a little like Google’s profile page that they are slowly introducing but I think it is cool to have ‘control’ over your own profile and avoid the branding that all the ‘commercial sites offer
It is also nice to be able to include a simple ‘About me’ link at the bottom of each email that just links to the same landing page.
All the best Dave
Darren,
As far as SEO goes, would it be wise for people to actually name their twitter landing pages something like:
“www.problogger.net/twitter-landing-page-darran-rowse” ?
Just curious
Shane
twitter: shanearthur
Darren, What a great idea.
With the new age of Twit-marketers connecting with new readers and followers everyday through Twitter, a personalized landing page is not only smart and timely, but a natural progression towards breaking through the marketing clutter.
As usual, this post is great. It’s full of forward-thinking advice and easy to implement examples for content providers and online marketers. You’ve inspired me to create a customized page for my site this weekend.
Fascinating idea! I am thinking I will give it a twhirl (pun intended) later today.
Shane, that is a great idea. As long your doing it add a little SEO to the mix. Bravo.
blessings,
Wendy
Twitter: WendyMerritt
Hi Darren,
Excellent post again. Twitter landing page, now that’s something! I was thinking with some programming may be we can make the landing page more dynamic. Such, as if someone were to come from Plurk, it’d display the custom text we’ve specified for that domain and so forth. Something along the lines of a wordpress plugin called Referrer Detector that greets people like “Hello fellow Digger, If you like this page – then don’t forget to digg it”. Now, that would be super cool :-)
I’m totally with you on what a great idea this is but haven’t a clue how I would create one. I’d love a follow up article with some tips or resources!
I’d also gone though your last post regarding Twitter customization. I’ve also tried a few hands on it to change from the default theme. I did try a few things. But I know there are a lot of things still to be done in my account.
Please do check out my twitter page too: http://www.twitter.com/nepal
That is a great idea… But damn you that is one more project to put on my list of things to do…
Great concept though and make a lot of sense!
ps. And as Wendy noticed and followed, to bring this concept fulll circle, I can’t see why anybody from this point fowards would not include their twitter handle at the bottom of their comments on other blogs.
Shane
Twitter: shanearthur
pps. I meant to say “from this point FORWARD (no s)”
Very simple yet valuable idea. Thanks for the tip. Now I need to put “Twitter Landing Page “on my todo list.
I just created my landing page! I’d love to hear what you think.
http://freefrombroke.com/twitter
Thanks for the great idea Darren!
http://twitter.com/freefrombroke
this idea in other way also make one visitor who reach the landing page felt more welcome compare to reach at home page.
very fresh and nice idea though.
Well … it seems like your Bolg:
Digital Photography School (a blog and forum on digital photography)
Has been captured from a domain grabber?!